Thursday, August 21, 2014

Before and After

When we moved into our house back in November of 2012, we weren't in it for a month before we discovered I was pregnant. With pregnancy came morning sickness and a few months of total laziness. Eventually, feeling better, my first and only project was the nursery.

Now that we have been here almost two years(!) it's time to make this house feel more like home. With my Aunt Ruthanne's direction, we updated our kitchen "nook." My Aunt has an amazing talent in interior design and should start her own business. I wish I had a picture book of the homes she has built, renovated, and decorated. I was so excited when she agreed to help me put this room together with a few simple changes.

This is our kitchen "nook." Our kitchen is one large open area and this part of the room faces our island and cabinets. I wanted this part of the room to feel warm and inviting as a place to sit and talk while cooking dinner and having friends over.

Obviously, this room was thrown together with mismatched pieces of furniture and the previous owner's curtains still hanging! Don't even look in the den to the left. We're working on that too.

Amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do! We used Sherman Williams "Oyster White."

The paint made all the difference in the world, but we needed some window treatments and a seating area.

Alas, curtains! I learned a good bit in the process that I will stick in my back pocket as I move on through each room. One thing being, that curtains are hung to the ceiling, not directly on top of the window seal.

So you can see there is a kitchen table/dining area to the right and a could be cozy seating area to the left.

Voila! This is the most recent update of the space. Drew doodles is enjoying reading throwing her books at her kid table. The darling wooden table belonged to Andy and his sister when they were little and I thought it was the perfect addition. The chairs are slip covered which will be good for the sticky fingers that will be brushing them so often. This space is already so cozy and fun. I cooked dinner tonight while watching Drew play on her hippo and crawl along each chair. We still need to pick some art work to flank each side of the big window and change up the rug.

Lastly, we updated the chandelier. Of course, I never knew we needed a new chandelier. I was fine with the previous one. My aunt insisted that we change it up and she was spot on. In addition to being interior savvy, my aunt can also hunt a good deal. This chandelier was an absolute steal.

A lesson learned in this process.. while making new home purchases like furniture or light fixtures, place the old pieces from your home on Craigslist. It doesn't hurt to see if you get a bite on something you're not using, and that's money for your home budget!

Here is Drew doodles and daddy enjoying reading a book in their new space.